Cinnamon Blood
by PaperPrince
Summary: Alternate universe. when Raj meets a mysterious guy at a club he never expects him to be a vampire. Romance ensues.  Some smut but really rated M for safety.
1. Chapter 1

Raj slowly sipped at his cocktail, uncomfortably pulling at his sweater vest wishing he had stayed with Sheldon, who was probably finishing a quest right now. Instead he sat at a dirty booth at some weird club listening to some purple haired punk prattle on.

He regretted playing Lenard's wingman tonight as he always ended up with the weird ones. He glanced over to Lenard out on the dance floor making a fool of himself trying to impress the hotter female friend of the girl sitting in front of him. After a few dismal attempts at conversation she had taken to texting on her phone while simultaneously eying up any guy who happened to glance in her direction. Not that any of them were insane enough to actually approach the pierced princess.

His drink empty, Raj had been about to get another when a tattooed arm placed a strange looking drink down in front of him. Surprised he glanced up "A Jedi mind trick for a delicious piece of caramel" said a guy in black. What's-her-name lent over to take the drink from the brunette, but he pushed the drink closer to Raj instead. Sighing she got up and left, presumably to try her luck elsewhere. Maybe tonight wouldn't be so bad after all Raj thought, glancing at the Goth. The guy sat down. Taking a sip of the cocktail, Raj smiled, it wasn't often he got hit on by anyone. "So I'm Howard" the mysterious man divulged with a creepily cute grin.

Light gently trickled in through the gap in the curtain waking a hung-over Raj. Rolling over he noticed a small white arm poking out of the covers, apparently Zazzles his cat had crawled into bed with him again. He sighed and went to go shave. Glancing in the mirror mid stroke he noticed a bruise on the side of his neck, he turned to get a better view and discovered more of them trailing down his neck towards his collar bone. Apparently last night had gone better than he remembered. Suddenly his hangover didn't seem so bad.

It was only when his phone rang that he returned to reality. Sighing he picked up the receiver and was instantly hit by a torrid of abuse from a very pissed of Lenard.

"What the hell happened to you last night?"

"What?"

"You got smashed and left with some dude last night, remember?" Raj's head span as he struggled to recall the night before, him with some guy? impossible.

"Uh listen I'll call you back I have to get to work, Sheldon will kill me if I'm late" He slammed the door shut.


	2. Chapter 2

Howard sighed he had been so close, if only he hadn't chickened out at the last minute. He would never get a chance with such a tasty morsel again that was for sure. Sadly for him his conscience was too strong to let himself bite a passed out guy. At least that is what he told himself.

After leaving the club that night Howard had gone home with his hook up. Although it had been his intension to drink the other mans fluids in a secluded location well away from prying eyes it had not been possible, as Raj had fallen into a drunken slumber almost immediately. When Howard had attempted to feast he had been attacked by a ferocious feline forcing him to retreat for the night, the painful throbbing claw marks on his arms were reminders of this. In addition to humiliating him the dam cat from the night before had completely ruined his expensive tattoo sleeves.

His stomach growled as he remembered the heavenly scent of blood so sweet it practically begged to be drunk. He had been intoxicated and enticed by the smell emitted by the dark stranger. Something about his blood had excited Howard in a way humans never had before.

Until last night he hadn't felt the need, the hunger for blood so intensely and it had frightened him. He had almost crossed the final line and drunken real human blood, fresh from the vain. He recalled the night before, warm pulse beneath his teeth as his victim moaned in anticipation. The placement of his right arm supporting Raj's neck to allow better access while his left rested on the other mans thigh pining him down. He recalled the heat beneath him and the desire stirring within. These feelings stayed with him still, hours after the encounter, confusing him.

Famished he grabbed a carton of sheep blood from the fridge and drank it hungrily. He gagged and chocked for a few minutes before finally throwing up in the sink. Suddenly the substitute seemed repulsive to taste. It seemed his body wanted the genuine article, but where to get it? His watch beeped suddenly reminding him of the time. Hungry or not it was time for him to be at work.

Upon arriving at the university he was greeted by an empty office, which wasn't unusual as his colleague Danny was on a sabbatical. Logging on to his computer he found an urgent email from the most annoying professor at the university, Dr Cooper. Apparently his assistance was demanded to help unravel something that was troubling the genius. Ordinarily he would have put this message strait in the junk mail folder and got on with his project for NASA. Today however he mistakenly decided to go help the nut job.

To his disappointment but not surprise Howard discovered that it was the air-conditioning that needed fixing. After a short argument which had nearly resulted in violence. Howard found himself fixing said air-conditioner in exchange for several limited edition comic books, despite having been threatened several times by the taller stick like physicist.

Having been promised total privacy in which to complete the work coupled with the fact Dr Cooper had few friends; it was a complete surprise to Howard when the door to the office suddenly flew open knocking over the ladder he was currently resting on in the process. He hit the floor with a bang. Upon awakening he found himself staring up at the very same chocolate pools of eyes he had met only the night before.


	3. Chapter 3

Leonard swore angrily as he put the phone down. He hadn't expected Raj to hang up on him. As despite being somewhat surprised about Raj's apparent preferences Leonard had meant to be supportive. The last thing he had meant to do was upset Raj. He only wished his friend had told him before he slunk off to god knows where with some creepy Goth.

Perhaps things hadn't gone well the night before he thought considering that Raj who was often the sanest member of their small group had seemed slightly weird and moody over the phone. Maybe he hadn't had sex after all. Or maybe he had Leonard winced at the thought of his friend having sex with some random dude. Trying to erase the image burned into his thoughts he got up and pulled the curtains open. Still concerned about the issue with Raj, Leonard decided he would apologise to him later with the help of a large cheese pizza. As Sheldon often said nothing says "I'm sorry" quite like pizza

. Human arms leisurely wrapped themselves around his torso, returning him to the present. Before pulling him back down onto the bed into a tight embrace. He smiled as he kissed the sizzling blond he had met the night before. His mind quickly turned to mush as he explored every inch of the goddess that lay beneath him, gasping for more. Enthralled and enchanted by her loveliness Leonard had almost- when they were interrupted by three loud knocks on the bedroom door.

"Leonard" "Leonard" "Leonard" called an incredibly annoying voice.

"We are going to be late for work. For how much longer will you be engaging in coitus? Approximately" The voice continued ruining the moment.

* * *

Raj sighed frustrated as he stood in line. He had been waiting for about 15 minutes already but he was no closer to getting his coffee. If only Sheldon's other approved cafe hadn't closed down, he wouldn't have to wait half the morning just to get coffee for his American colleagues.

"Dam that stupid American tradition" thought Raj as the guy at the front ordered several different types of beverages and bagels.

As he stood in line his mind began to wander and he found himself thinking about the night before and thing that most certainly did not happen. He didn't go home with a stranger he told himself sternly, and he didn't almost have sex with him. It was a dream, some strange beer induced fantasy. "Although fantasy implies that you wanted it to happen and you did didn't you" whispered the small part of his brain that was becoming harder and harder to repress, if only he had stayed in India...

Coffee seemed to improve his thinking and after a large mocha latte Raj felt ready to accept whatever life decided to throw at him be it handsome Goths or irate co-workers.

"Not that I'm likely to meet the former again" thought Raj as he opened the door to Sheldon's office.


	4. Chapter 4

Raj gazed at the sleeping face of the mysterious man from last night as he lay in the sick bay in the medical department. Seeing his face again had only added to his confusion. It had been hard enough denying his arousal before, but now seeing him again in daylight made things difficult. His pale long limbs, delicate angelic face and touchable kissable lips made everything harder. His entire being seemed to entice raj drawing him in.

Raj felt his resolve crumble he would do anything for this man he was sure of it and he was going to make, he looked at his name tag, Howard sure of it too.

This second meeting had to be a sign of that he was sure.

* * *

Confused and disorientated Howard stirred from his slumber to be greeted by dark brown eyes filled with concern. Groggily he stared at them for a few moments before recalling the accident with the ladder.

"Are you alright?" asked the oddly familiar guy sitting with him.

Howard nodded numbly as he glanced around the room. "How did I get here?" He inquired.

"I carried you" said his exotic saviour. Howard went to get up but a hand pushed him down. "They said you might have a concussion, you need to rest." Howard tried to struggle but was overcome with exhaustion and sank back onto the bed closing his eyes to rest them.

"I don't advise sleeping just yet Mr Wolowitz, I need to talk to you" they turned to face the doorway to where DrFowler stood. As head of the department it wasn't really her job to deal with cases like this but Howard was one of her 'special patients'. She stared at Raj for a moment and then suddenly coughed politely. Raj stayed seated.

"Anyway we have the results of your examinations Mr Wolowitz, Raj would you mind leaving so we can talk?"

Suddenly aware Raj shook his head and left quickly closing the door behind him. Amy went and locked before sitting down next to the bed, her eyes never leaving her clipboard which she studied intensely. "So Howard how long have you been off your blood? You should have called me sooner; you know you have a unique condition. You need to regularly feed on blood as well as consume human food, you know."

Ignoring her Howard noticed a lingering sickly sweet scent that was very memorable to him. He looked at the door raj had just exited. It reminded of the night before. He grabbed Amy's wrists and asked who had just left the room.

"Dr Rajesh Koothrappali but that doesn't matter now,it seems that you have finally matured enough to get the real stuff." She picked a hand mirror and handed it to him "look it seems like your fangs have finally grown in" Howard stared at himself in the mirror inspecting his fangs. Amy sighed at him annoyed "half vampires are so vain" she complained to herself.

Relived Howard looked up at her "so this is why I've felt so strange lately" he said. "I thought I was going crazy, being repulsed by human blood one minute and nearly devouring them the next."

Amy frowned and looked at his file again, worried. Suddenly she drew closer to him, and sat on the side of the bed. "Tell me honestly, how do you feel having me so close to you right now? What do you smell?"

Howard breathed in deeply and was hit by a deadly putrid smell that burned his nose and churned his stomach. Her blood repulsed him, just like Dr Cooper's had.

"Do you feel like biting me? Drinking my blood?" she asked drawing even closer.

His answer of throwing up on her told her all she needed to know. He muttered an apology and asked if his reaction was natural. Amy slowly got up carefully trying not to spread the mess that now graced her blouse and long white coat.

"I think I need to do some investigating, run some tests" she said her voice full of concern. She gave him a small but encouraging punch on the shoulder. "In the meantime I'm going to prescribe you some pills and recommend you take it easy for a while. But first I think I'll go change"


	5. Chapter 5

**Sorry this is a bit short but I thought I should post what I had got instead of keeping people waiting any longer!**

* * *

Howard spends most of the rest of the day resting in one of the beds in the clinic feeding on a fresh blood bags that Dr Fowler had "procured" for him. Too famished to abstain from feeding any longer Howard swallowed the first and second bags greedily despite their horrid taste, trying not to dwell on where the blood had come from as he did so.

Sometime later Sheldon visits him begrudgingly. Apparently he has been ordered by the university to apologize for the incident and coerce and cajole Howard into signing an agreement that would prevent him from suing the university.

"How can you not want food vouchers for the cheesecake factory?" Wailed the stick like scientist in exasperation. "Their burgers are sublime! No one is able to resist them." Said Dr Cooper crushing the coupons in his hand, his voice slightly raised.

The door banged open suddenly and Amy reappears dragging behind her a very uncomfortable looking Raj. "I found another visitor out in the hallway for you Howard" She says gently shoving Raj towards Howard's sickbed.

Raj smiles slightly and waves hello to him unsure what to say and where to look. Howard smiled back and goes to say something to ease the tension when Sheldon begins to act oddly, well more than usual.

Sheldon's nose begins to twitch widely as he stared around the room as if looking for something. His eyes fix on Amy and he stares at her as if she is the only thing in the entire universe. He slowly advances towards her tilting his head to the side, rapidly flicking his tongue in and out as he does so. She mimicked his actions precisely and moved towards him as well. They grasp each other awkwardly like animals performing some strange mating dance stretching out their tongues in order to lick at each other's face. And just when it seems that things couldn't get any stranger two largish antennae emerge from their heads mid embrace.

Ignoring the dumbstruck looks of Raj and Howard, Sheldon proceeded to push Amy onto the empty bed beside Howard and draw the long curtain behind them for privacy, but unfortunately little soundproofing.

Eventually Raj manages to find his voice "well I guess I win that bet then" Howard stared at him confused "Leonard- Sheldon's roommate that is thought he was a robot but I guessed alien and well I was right I suppose "he said his voice barely louder than the strange noises that were coming from the other bed.

Howard was shocked at how well Raj had taken this new development, after all normal humans ran at this sort of thing. A tiny glimmer of hope settled in his chest, perhaps Raj his destined one after all.

Slipping off the blankets and revealing himself to be fully dressed Howard quickly got up out of the bed and headed for the door. "We should probably give them some privacy" Raj nodded and followed him out. "Want to get some coffee?" He asked.

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**Review if you like this!**


	6. Chapter 6

Howard slammed the door loudly waking up his mother in the process. She struggled to get up off her perch. "Howard "she yells flapping her tiny bat wings frantically in the dark. "Is that you? What are you doing back so late?" "Were you out drinking hobos again?"

Howard makes his way to the living room where she is. "Cool it ma" "You crazy old bat" he mutters. "If you must know I had a date, I found a suitable prey" he winces a bit at the vampire terminology even as he says it, uncomfortable with its meaning.

His mother laughs so hard at his words she falls to the floor struggling to breath. "You hunting" she wheezes. "Don't make me laugh, your too young to be dating" Howard bends down to help her, but she pulls away from him waving a wing dismissively "I don't need your help I'm only 300 years old not some decrypted old bat yet you know, I'm going to bed and suggest you do the same. It's nearly dawn after all" she says turning off the crystal ball, before flying down the hall towards her bedroom.

Howard carefully makes his way towards his room taking care in the darkness not to hit into the furniture that he cannot see but knows is there. Once again wishing that light, even the weak artificial kind was not so detrimental to his mother's health.

As he lay in his coffin (its lid open so as to prevent a panic attack, Howard suffered from severe claustrophobia) his mind wandered back to the exhilarating evening he had spent with Raj after they had left the hospital.

Despite the way in which they had parted the first time they had met and how little he knew about the other man he found himself trusting him. Indeed it was the way in which he had calmly reacted to Sheldon's revelation that he had decided that he could trust Raj with his most important secret.

In the darkness he recalled the two of them sitting beneath cherry trees in the park drinking hot coffee. He recalled the sweet sent of the blossoms as they drifted slowly in the breeze their sent mixing with the intoxicating scent of the coffee and the man sitting beside him. He recalled the hardness of the bench as they sat talking for hours in the empty park. The sky slowly turned dark as he, Howard struggled and stumbled trying to twist the conversation into the right direction trying to explain what he wanted, what he needed from Raj.

It had been hard for him to reveal himself, to admit what he truly was, he had spent so many years pretending to be normal that the word Vampire had chocked and died on his tongue.

Raj had been wonderfully patient though and after today he wouldn't have been surprised to learn that the other man was psychic.

After all why else would Raj kiss him if not to form a temporary bond? Howard had been in the middle of explaining his lust for blood, his need for a prey someone to drink from when Raj had kissed him. Howard knew that in order to form the bond required to feed that they would need to kiss, he had prepared himself for such an event spending hours practicing in the mirror when he was younger (which was a hard thing to do when your reflection is little more than a ghost like shadow).

While others of his kind avoided making such a bond with human men preferring to seek out timid females for such acts Howard had no such qualms. Blood was blood after all and if the price for it was a kiss or two he saw no problem with that.

He had not however anticipated such a kiss to be so violent harsh and needy. It was the sort of kiss that would create a strong bond between the two of them, just not the kind that Howard had been expecting. Something primal stirred inside of Howard and soon he was kissing not for the want of his blood but because he wanted him.

This thought shocked him even now as he lay in his coffin remembering the way the kiss had deepened, the scent of him, the taste, exotic and hot and spicy so spicy it burned his tongue, his mouth. They had seemed to kiss for hours alone in the cold park warming each other. Images flashed before him, the flush on Raj's cheeks, his hot raggedy breath and the want in his dark eyes.

He brought a hand to his sore lips to stifle himself while the other brought him to the edge with a few quick hard touches. Howard let out a moan he had not been aware he had been holding as he came hard and fast in the darkness.

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**Just a quick note here to say that inspiration has been lacking lately so I'm happy to listen to any prompts you may have. Also reviews are welcome as always. **


	7. Chapter 7

Howard soon realises that his confession has been misunderstood when Raj starts throwing the term boyfriend around and redecorating his office.

Howard also realises he doesn't mind the intimacy, the closeness between them, the hugs, the kisses, the nicknames. He finds it cute, endearing even.

He realises that he needs this man in his life in order to make it complete. He realises he has fallen and there's nothing he can do about it. He discovers that he doesn't care, that he doesn't mind all the complications this new development has brought. He decides he can deal with them and his mother.

The only problem left is blood. It's not easy for him but he manages to hold out for nearly a month before biting Raj. It's consensual and Raj is fine with it but that doesn't make it any less weird either of them. After the first bite Howard is hooked on the stuff. Raj's blood is everything he had expected it to be and more, its warm sweet and tastes faintly of cinnamon.

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**This is probably not one of my better endings and I'm sorry if the ending is kind of disappointing but I've come to the point where I really just want to complete this story, as I hate leaving things unfinished and its been dragging on for months now.**


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